June 16, 2020

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Newsroom, 16.06.2020, 13:55

ALERT The
government in Bucharest is expected to endorse a decision on extending the
state of alert with 30 more days. Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has
explained that most of the experts believe the state of alert is necessary
given the present epidemiological background. The government’s decision must be
approved by Parliament and the largest opposition force, PSD, have announced
their intention not to endorse an extension longer than 15 days. The
Social-Democrats also believe the relaxation measures proposed by the
government are not enough. Romania has so far reported 22,415 infections
and a number of fatalities that has gone up to 1,437. Over 16 thousand patients
have been cured. 34 hundred Romanians have been confirmed infected abroad and
114 of them died. A new stage of relaxation measures started being imposed in
Romania as of Monday. Malls have opened, but playgrounds, cinemas, restaurants
and cafeterias remain closed.

ATTENDANCE The first weekend of the International Theatre
Festival in Sibiu, central Romania, which has this year been staged exclusively
online due to the Covid pandemic has registered an impressive audience. The
festival’s shows and other events posted on its facebook or webpage at
sibfest.ro have registered roughly 181 thousand visitors. The event continues
until June 21st with prestigious performances, shows of dance,
music, opera, street performances, circus and special conferences, all broadcast
online. The festival’s present edition unfolds under the motto ‘The Power to
Believe’. The International Theatre Festival in Sibiu is the first big
performing arts festival in Central and Eastern Europe.

WEATHER Romania is still facing bad weather phenomena in most
of its territory, where meteorologists have forecast heavy downpours and
lightning storms for the entire week. Scores of towns and villages have been
affected by the bad weather in 20 Romanian counties. Firefighters have been
deployed to pump water out of hundreds of households and public institutions or
to remove the broken trees from the streets. Traffic has been temporarily
disrupted on national and county roads.

NATO Romanian navy has handed over the command of Standing NATO
Mine Countermeasures Group Two, a communique issued by the Navy Chief of Staff
on Tuesday announced. By assuming the command of the aforementioned military
force, Romania proved its capabilities as a security provider for the defence
of the allies as this navy force has made a major contribution to maintaining
the alliance’s battle and immediate response capabilities in crisis situations
as well as to the promotion of NATO’s images and values. In the past six
months, the group has carried out missions in the Black Sea, the Aegean and the
Mediterranean Sea involving the participation of military vessels from
Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Romania and Turkey.

BORDER According to the Romanian authorities, 65 200, Romanian
and foreign nationals transited Romania’s border checkpoints on Monday. The
traffic has increased by 60% as compared to the month of May. Romania’s border
with Hungary proved to be the busiest, as it has been crossed by roughly 43,800
people. According to the same sources, the number of people who entered Romania
has doubled as compared to the previous state-of-alert period.

(translated by bill)